$150K base price for ~300 miles range. The ~500 mile range option will be considerably more. There's speculation that tacking on a bunch of other options/equipment, and Tesla's new "savior" could push upwards of $400K per.

All this. I have 2 cousins and an uncle that all own trucking companies (not 1 company, 3.)

The tesla, while neat. Will be a failure. #1, ain't nobody spending $150k for a daycab truck. #2, 300-500 mile range is worthless, especially for teams, and with the DOT rules, there are more and more team drivers. Therefore #3, they will only be good for local or in state use, see #1 for why that won't work.

Their current cars support it, they dropped it because they found most people that currently own the cars don't mind the charge time vs. cost of battery swaps.

If they already figured out all that stuff for cars they can certainly figure out how to enable it for trucks where it makes even more sense and is even more required due to the size of the battery packs in trucks.

Limp Gawd

Joined

Oct 7, 2009

Messages

352

I sometimes unload LTL trucks at work. They rarely have more than 5000lbs in the back. Easy sell for Tesla. The little cube vans usually have more weight in them, from my limited experience. 2000lbs of copy paper from the Office Depot/Max on a single delivery.

Also, I want one. Chop the top and put a small pickup bed on the back though. SUPER IMPRACTICAL, but fun.

Lolwut? Tesla uses no fuel, they use the same electric charger. One upon a time when there were no truck stops there were still gas stations. Without them, trucks couldn't move anywhere.

You can fuel a truck in 5-10 minutes with diesel and run for two days where a single Tesla takes up a charger spot for 30-60 minutes. Oh, and you can't just drop in from highway with a hot battery and start charging it without causing damage where as you can simply add diesel and run another day.

Supreme [H]ardness

2[H]4U

Joined

Jan 4, 2016

Messages

3,143

Its called logistics, and it can magically work around charge times, and range issues... Same as current logistics work around human drivers limits , truck maintenance and so on. Jeez. The fact that it might not look the same doesn't mean it will be bad or even difficult.

Oracle of Unfortunate Truths

Not for a base price of $150K plus the added start-up and carrying costs for charging stations, maint crew hiring/training for the new tech, extra battery packs, constrained delivery schedules and smaller service area due to shorter operating range, etc...I highly doubt they won't be widely and rapidly adopted for the substantial cost factor, and especially for local/day usage, at that.

Will it be considered a success if only a small handful of companies buy one each "to try it out for a year or two", resulting in segment-specific struggling sales to both Tesla's bottom line and investors?

I hope, for the sake of greatly reducing diesel and gas consumption in the world (just from semi-trucks, at that), that we do have a shift to electric in the very near future. But, realistically, the ranges need to substantially increase, the charge times need to decrease, and the cost needs to be much cheaper.

It will literally take the likes of Western Star, Mack, Peterbilt, International, Kenworth, Volvo USA, Freightliner, and other major truck makers to bring all-electric semi trucks to the market for that to happen.

Oh, and more nuke plants to keep up with the added load to the power infrastructure.

2[H]4U

Ignore Me

Joined

Jun 7, 2008

Messages

14,952

This thing plow through snow and ice without sleep breaks? I unloaded 3,500 trucks by hand for Walmart I hate trucks now stuff just keeps coming. One time the truck pulled away from the dock while we were unloading it If it's smart enough to know it's empty.

Weaksauce

[H]ard|Gawd

Will it be considered a success if only a small handful of companies buy one each "to try it out for a year or two", resulting in segment-specific struggling sales to both Tesla's bottom line and investors?

Yes. Yes it will. This company cannot fail. Will never be allowed to fail. And the ball washers will continue telling everyone how great it is no matter what happens.

I agree with the previous posters about ICE and 0-60 times. They are still important from a performance perspective. Personally I like 1/4 miles better but I don't think you can take away from the great performance you get out of electrics from a dig. It is impressive no way around it. Gasoline cars don't have to be snoozers out of the hole but it takes work to get them quick there.

[H]ard|Gawd

Joined

Jan 24, 2009

Messages

1,094

I wonder how Musk can sleep during night, I mean he's involved in so many high risk projects that are like envitable to have some "media publicity disasters". We already had some self driving Tesla disasters but imagine when we get the first accident where Tesla truck driver killing someone (with focus on the trucks being so quick/relatively silent) or not to mention the whole Neuralink put chips in the brain scenario and the political & moral discussion it involves or ProjectX where he ultimately wants ordinary citizen to do space traveling in reusable rockets.

I mean what is there that can possibly go wrong here!? That man must love living life on the edge.

2[H]4U

I don't see why benefit to marketing the trucks as fast acceleration vehicles other than to fill the newsfeeds with stuff that's irrelevant. Having slow acceleration trucks are probably safer for everyone.

Because the big rigs now will be able to get over before some jackass tries to block their lane change by accelerating to close the gap. I see that constantly here in Dallas on my commute. Would love to see the rig accelerate and block that asshole from doing that to them. Make that dildo in the hot car think twice.

[H]F Junkie

I wonder how Musk can sleep during night, I mean he's involved in so many high risk projects that are like envitable to have some "media publicity disasters". We already had some self driving Tesla disasters but imagine when we get the first accident where Tesla truck driver killing someone (with focus on the trucks being so quick/relatively silent) or not to mention the whole Neuralink put chips in the brain scenario and the political & moral discussion it involves or ProjectX where he ultimately wants ordinary citizen to do space traveling in reusable rockets.

I mean what is there that can possibly go wrong here!? That man must love living life on the edge.

I don't think Musk cares about that. He's already made his fortune, now he is out to make a name for himself. I think his primary goal now is to make sure he is remembered as a pioneer and trailblazer who succeeded despite numerous naysayers and challenges. There really isn't much that is higher profile than environmental change and space right now.

[H]F Junkie

Joined

Jan 19, 2007

Messages

10,114

You can easily tell who deals with broad trucking issues and who doesn't. But I can promise you, big companies don't spend a dime on R/D needed for something like this unless they've spent a shit load of money finding out if this is viable or not, whether as a PR stunt or functional product. If it's a giant PR stunt then congrats, lots of people are talking about it as both good and bad. But my guess is they see this as a viable product that has a place in the trucking world. I assume you'll see more specific models popping up soon in the medium duty frames for things like people carriers and construction work; such as bucket trucks, cement trucks, dumpster trucks, etc... Most of those hardly ever see over 250m/day let alone 400m/day.

Supreme [H]ardness

All this. I have 2 cousins and an uncle that all own trucking companies (not 1 company, 3.)

The tesla, while neat. Will be a failure. #1, ain't nobody spending $150k for a daycab truck. #2, 300-500 mile range is worthless, especially for teams, and with the DOT rules, there are more and more team drivers. Therefore #3, they will only be good for local or in state use, see #1 for why that won't work.

I don't even see that as a problem, I see these things breaking down as a problem. What Tesla model series hasn't had issues when it released? You're already limited on who can work on a Tesla and is Tesla going to pay the owner lost income from the truck being down?

My buddy is a huge Tesla fan. Sucks it straight from the teat. He has a Model X, a Model 3, and a couple Power walls. Guess what happened to his Model 3 after 270 miles? It broke.

2[H]4U

I don't even see that as a problem, I see these things breaking down as a problem. What Tesla model series hasn't had issues when it released? You're already limited on who can work on a Tesla and is Tesla going to pay the owner lost income from the truck being down?

My buddy is a huge Tesla fan. Sucks it straight from the teat. He has a Model X, a Model 3, and a couple Power walls. Guess what happened to his Model 3 after 270 miles? It broke.

[H]ard|DCer of the Month - July 2010

I don't even see that as a problem, I see these things breaking down as a problem. What Tesla model series hasn't had issues when it released? You're already limited on who can work on a Tesla and is Tesla going to pay the owner lost income from the truck being down?

My buddy is a huge Tesla fan. Sucks it straight from the teat. He has a Model X, a Model 3, and a couple Power walls. Guess what happened to his Model 3 after 270 miles? It broke.

these wouldn't work for independent drivers anyways since they pretty much run from one job to the next with the least amount of downtime possible. these big companies on the other hand can afford to be the beta testers while getting their discounted price where an independent driver would never get. either way the only way you'll know if there's issues is by using it in real world scenarios with normal people that make normal driving choices/mistakes.. i mean just with the trucks we drive at my work, we abuse the living hell out of them. there's no way you'll ever see a company do the same crap we do in a "testing" scenario.

2[H]4U

Well... he could have one of those 8 or 9 year auto loans instead of a normal 5. Also no telling what he might have paid as a down payment and simply forgot about that'd have to be well into the 30% or more range. But yeah... the idea of a "middle income" family just shrugging off $2k/mo in auto loans is laughable.

2[H]4U

Well... he could have one of those 8 or 9 year auto loans instead of a normal 5. Also no telling what he might have paid as a down payment and simply forgot about that'd have to be well into the 30% or more range. But yeah... the idea of a "middle income" family just shrugging off $2k/mo in auto loans is laughable.

Supreme [H]ardness

Sure, but I'm not saying people are buying them all at once. I can't think of too many middle income families that decide to go buy 2 brand new vehicles at the same time. There's also the down payment and the length of the loan, which will bring down the price of the loan. They buy one vehicle, pay it off, get another vehicle. That's exactly what my friend did with his Teslas. Model X is 2-3 years old now. Paid it off before he got a Model 3. His power walls, he got a deal. $10k for the two power walls, inverters, and install. I think without the deal it was $15k.

He also has no electricity bill and gets paid for the extra electricity he generates. Before he got any Tesla, he had a Chevy Spark and still has his electric motorcycle.

these wouldn't work for independent drivers anyways since they pretty much run from one job to the next with the least amount of downtime possible. these big companies on the other hand can afford to be the beta testers while getting their discounted price where an independent driver would never get. either way the only way you'll know if there's issues is by using it in real world scenarios with normal people that make normal driving choices/mistakes.. i mean just with the trucks we drive at my work, we abuse the living hell out of them. there's no way you'll ever see a company do the same crap we do in a "testing" scenario.

Yes, but if you're beta testing, you get with a company, loan them a small fleet of vehicles, and let them test it. Over X amount of time, you find and resolve whatever problems crop up, before you release to the general public for purchase. Well, the vehicle isn't due out until sometime next year, so I really hope to see them do some kind of actual real world testing.

2[H]4U

Yeah I think you're under-valuing what this can do for local short-haul trucking. I don't really want to make the full argument, yet again, for it, as there's plenty out there showcasing the pros of this. So, whatever.

Not for a base price of $150K plus the added start-up and carrying costs for charging stations, maint crew hiring/training for the new tech, extra battery packs, constrained delivery schedules and smaller service area due to shorter operating range, etc...I highly doubt they won't be widely and rapidly adopted for the substantial cost factor, and especially for local/day usage, at that.

Will it be considered a success if only a small handful of companies buy one each "to try it out for a year or two", resulting in segment-specific struggling sales to both Tesla's bottom line and investors?

I hope, for the sake of greatly reducing diesel and gas consumption in the world (just from semi-trucks, at that), that we do have a shift to electric in the very near future. But, realistically, the ranges need to substantially increase, the charge times need to decrease, and the cost needs to be much cheaper.

It will literally take the likes of Western Star, Mack, Peterbilt, International, Kenworth, Volvo USA, Freightliner, and other major truck makers to bring all-electric semi trucks to the market for that to happen.

Oh, and more nuke plants to keep up with the added load to the power infrastructure.

Yeah... they do offer loans that long but that's a horrible idea. It isn't like a home mortgage where the house can actually go up in value. By year 6 on any "normal" car or truck, you're likely going to owe more on the loan than the vehicle is worth, and still be years away from actually paying it off, nevermind stretching out the interest that long. That's the sort of trap car dealerships will use on people when they refuse to discuss totals but will happily "help you with your payment, let's get that payment down to something manageable, see isn't that such a better number every month?" when you're actually paying even more money for the vehicle.